


Thinking is Believing

by rz_jocelyn



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Complete, Friendship, Gen, One Shot, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-27 20:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rz_jocelyn/pseuds/rz_jocelyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An alternate take on Episodes 21 and 22. The Female Titan had been incapacitated. Eren Yeager had been protected. The Special Operations Squad members were alive. But, it had come at a cost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thinking is Believing

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Episodes 21 and 22. The fascinating characters of Shingeki no Kyojin ~ Attack on Titan ~ do not belong to me, but to their esteemed creator. Enjoy~

There are five people standing before him, but the Special Operations Squad – _Levi's_ squad – is one person short.

 _Erwin Smith doesn't think of_ who _the missing person is_.

One by one, they speak – haltingly, in whispers and stammers, subdued and tormented – and one by one, they leave. Petra's hand is already on the tent flap when she stops, hesitating, before swiftly spinning on her heel, stepping back to his desk, taking something out of her pocket and handing it to him. 'This-This was his, sir,' she said as Erwin held out his hand, palm up and open, to accept her offering.

The symbol of the Scouting Legion; the Wings of Freedom.

_Erwin doesn't think of the soldier who started this tradition of collecting the symbol as proof of a soldier's existence, proof that he had lived._

With a final salute, she leaves. Only Erwin and Zoe Hange are left.

There is a brief silence. A breath. Two breaths. Then, Hange breaks it. 'They tried to bring his body back. They held on to it as long as they could, but…' She shrugged her shoulders helplessly, her eyes hidden behind a curtain of her fringe, her glasses glinting in the dim light.

_Erwin doesn't think of how unusually subdued she sounds, unemotional, uncaring, apathetic, dead; he also doesn't think of the reason why she sounds the way she does._

'They followed his orders until the very end. They chose to protect Eren.'

_Erwin doesn't think of how it must've felt for them as they celebrated their victory only to realize that it had come at a cost too high; he also doesn't think of how they must've felt when they found his broken body, blood-spattered and crumpled – though whole, in one piece, recognizable, and with all his limbs still, thankfully, intact – surrounded by his shattered weapons; a distraction to buy them time, a sacrifice so that they might live._

'Hange, let the troops know that we'll be leaving in three hours.' She nods, salutes – smartly, obediently, mechanically, in the way she has not done since _he_ entered their ranks – and leaves.

 _Erwin doesn't think of how much difference a single man has made, of how he had always been short, but never unnoticed, his presence larger than life; the commander also doesn't think of how the people would instantly notice the man's absence, and how the "Wings of Freedom" had become, once again, nothing more than a symbol – because_ he _was the one who made them all believe that they could truly fly as they watched him soar through the air; powerful, deadly, beautiful and free._

As Erwin's fingers tighten around the patch in his hand, he breathes deeply and closes his mind. There is no time to stop, no time to think, no time to mourn, not yet, not when there were still Titans hot on their heels and soldiers he had to lead to safety; injured, weary men and women, fighters, survivors he had to lead home.

_Erwin Smith doesn't think of how one fighter had not survived, of how one man would never come home; he doesn't think of how Humanity's Strongest Soldier had fallen._

_Levi was dead._

And, life flows ever onwards.

 

~ OWARI ~

 

 


End file.
